Telecommunication service providers are adding alternative (e.g., “green”) power sources as options for powering evermore of their telecommunication sites, such as central offices and cell towers. This brings real benefits in operating costs and commercial electric power “grid” independence, yet it also introduces a host of new, often disparate equipment to the network that the service providers must maintain and replace as years go by. As a consequence, the equipment threatens the sustainability of the network and its quality of service. The risk is particularly acute when the equipment is exposed to weather and lightning, which is almost always the case.
Complicating matters, disparate types of power sources have different priorities of use. For example, renewable power sources, such as solar and wind power, should be preferred and therefore have a higher priority than fossil-fuel-powered backup generators and fee-based, and possibly also fossil-fuel-powered, commercial electric power. Being lower in priority, the latter should only be used only as necessary. Because they are typically reserved for emergency use, backup batteries may have the lowest priority.